The Tree of Death

The old timers that gathered at Pete Merill’s corner store every Saturday morning would talk about the tree.  The conversations would never start with the tree but they would always end there.  The men would start by talking about the highway expansion over in Bishop and how it would hopefully bring new business into town.  They’d talk about how Frank Wilmuth’s farm went under in ’82 and how it started a crippling domino effect that the town had yet to recover from.  And with each exceedingly darker chapter of the town’s history that was discussed, talk of the tree drew closer and closer to the tips of their tongues.  Today, it was Teddy who brought it up.  “Yup, it was under that tree that old Wilmuth shot himself.”